In industries where there is a need to administer and maintain an inventory of goods, the goods are frequently stored in a storage unit and an individual is designated to monitor the goods. The monitoring of the goods often involves physically inspecting the location of the goods to perform an accounting. The accounting involves determining whether or not a particular item is present in the storage unit. It is not uncommon, however, for the individual responsible for physically inspecting the goods to perform an inaccurate accounting of the goods.
In the medical field, the monitoring of goods could be useful. The integrity of the blood units and the sample specimens is important. Units of blood or sample specimens from research activities are stored in laboratory refrigerators or ultra low temperature (ULT) freezers (freezers operating at −40 degrees and below) and medical professionals seek to ensure that the blood units or the sample specimens are not subjected to tampering.
Often the storage units where the blood units and sample specimens are placed is accessible to many individuals. Under open access conditions, units of blood or sample specimens may be removed from storage units or placed in storage units without an accounting of the transaction. Further, if tampering activities are performed, there may not be a system or method for identifying the individuals who performed the tampering activities. Therefore, it is difficult for medical professionals to administer the storage units to prevent the tampering of the blood units or sample specimens and maintain an accounting of the blood units or sample specimens.
In many industries, such as the medical and food industries, it is also important to maintain items at certain temperatures and/or to monitor items to identify any temperature changes associated with the items. For example, in the medical field, blood should to be maintained within a certain temperature range. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and/or method for tracking the temperature of products. It is also desirable to take the temperature of products at discrete times and maintain a record/log of these temperatures.
Accordingly, it is also desirable to provide a system for automatically tracking inventory to reduce errors that may occur when an individual has to physically inspect the goods to perform an accounting.
In addition, it is desirable to provide a system that tracks the date and/or time that an item is removed from the storage unit, placed in the storage unit, or even placed in a location designated for another item.
Further, it is desirable to provide a system and method for allowing only individuals who are authorized to access a storage unit access to that particular storage unit. It is also desirable to provide a system that tracks the date and/or time that an individual accesses a storage unit.
In addition, it is also desirable to maintain a log of individuals who have accessed a storage unit. It is also desirable to maintain a log of items that have been removed or placed in a storage unit.
Further, it is desirable to provide a system that is accessible to a user who seeks to administer, monitor, or retrieve information regarding the storage unit and the contents of the storage unit.